Sales & Marketing

Austin, Texas -- The platform behind today’s most inspiring shopping experiences today announced the results of a recent study based on an audit of 220 websites across 10 retail segments to identify benchmarks for how online shoppers are able to navigate in the digital realm. The study compared those results to existing attribute categories of current Edgecase retailers in the same categories to show the current disconnects in navigation standards.   

By Murali Nadarajah, Xchanging Malaysia   Consumers can purchase virtually anything they want anytime from anywhere, from the Internet to social media to mobile devices to good old brick-and-mortar stores. As a result of today’s omnichannel approach to retail, chain stores now have access to a massive collection of customer data that hasn’t existed until recently.  

Philadelphia -- Century 21 Department Store is opening an approximately 95,000-sq.-ft. anchor store at The Gallery shopping center in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Oct. 28. This will be New York-based Century 21’s first location outside the New York market.   

York, Me. –- Stonewall Kitchen has received an investment from private equity firm Centre Partners. As part of the investment, Stonewall Kitchen will continue to be managed by its existing leadership team with the addition of Centre operating partner John Stiker, who has been named CEO.    

By Jeff Weidauer, Vestcom International There’s been a lot of discussion in recent months about store sizes, in particular the fact that stores are getting smaller, primarily because of the impact of e-commerce. For example, Walmart and Target are both committed to offering smaller format stores.

Washington, D.C. –- Nearly eight in 10 (79%) retailers surveyed will set their standard shipping deadlines for guaranteed Christmas delivery to expire at least a week before the holiday, compared to 74% who said in the 2013 holiday season. In addition, according to Shop.org’s EHoliday survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, approximately one in five (21%) will set those deadlines to expire Dec. 19 or later, compared to more than one-quarter who said so last year (25%).

Redwood Shores, Calif. -- Cosmetics retailer Ultra Beauty has implemented Oracle Commerce to support growing e-commerce sales and deliver a consistent consumer experience across its more than 696 retail locations as well as mobile, web, guest services, and direct mail channels.  

San Francisco -- DHgate, an e-commerce marketplace focused on cross-border trade of Chinese goods, will provide its U.S. buyers with a consumer-rated protection plan and repair service through SquareTrade. The partnership makes SquareTrade protection plans immediately available for cell phones, tablets, computers, MP3/4 players, home audio/video and other consumer electronics products.